From the Club Captain

Welcome to our new members

A very warm welcome to our new members: Alex Bassett and Jessica Bullen. Enjoy the game!

Congratulations and thanks

WCA GC Silver Badge Competition winners

Pádraig O'Connor 3 - 5.
David Littlejohn (Khandallah) 6 - 8.
Collette Mackenzie 9 - 16.

Club GC handicap doubles

David Robinson and Janice Gibb, winners.
Denise and Dougal Ongley, runners-up.

GC Twilight Aggregate Doubles

Callum McKinnon, winner.
Jim Brough and Dave Egley, second equal.
Lily de Groen, fourth.

Waikanae Open GC Doubles

Jessica Bullen and Nathan Bullen, winners.
David Robinson and Pádraig O'Connor, second.

GC Ingram Open Singles

Jim Brough, winner.
Ian Stuart, runner-up.

10+

Lily de Groen, winner.
Stephanie O'Connor, runner-up.

Improvements in handicaps

Dougal Ongley GC handicap of 12.
Janice Gibb GC handicap of 12.
Lily de Groen GC handicap of 12.
Stephanie O'Connor GC handicap of 12.
Colette Mackenzie GC handicap of 11.
Mary Egley GC handicap of 10.
Pádraig O'Connor GC handicap of 2.
Callum McKinnon AC handicap of - .5. Callum played in the AC second 8 invitation, in which he did his first triple peel, which earned him a CNZ AC Gold Award.
Baubre Murray AC handicap of 1.5. Baubre played in the AC third 16 invitation in which she was runner-up.

Thanks to …

For the GC Silver Badge competition

John Corsham for leaf raking.
David Robinson and Dougal Ongley for their hoop setting. The Tournament Referee was very pleased with their standard.
Alison Robinson and Sandy Lawson for refereeing.
Denise Ongley and Colette Mackenzie for kitchen duties.
Denise Ongley, Jan Rosenberg, Marion McInnes and Mary Stevens for home baking.

Other events

Jim Brough for organising the Khandallah Exchange, and Lily de Groen and Callum McKinnon for kitchen duties.
Callum for the highly successful afternoon for students from VUW, assisted by Jess, Joan, Pádraig, John Kane and Denise.

Dates and events to note

Thu 28 Mar: visit by students from Clifton Terrace Model School.
Fri 29 Mar to Tue 2 Apr: at Waimarie HV Croquet Club. CNZ Terminator Mallet U21 GC Championship. This will be livestreamed.
Sat 13 Apr: Official closing day of summer season. Usual morning club play to be followed by shared lunch and prizegiving. Please bring food to share.

Jane Norman
Club Captain

Club business updates

2027 World AC Champs hosting

Thanks to everyone who responded to our second call for your views on Kelburn's participation in hosting the 2027 World AC Championships, after we were initially given incorrect information. The Wellington Croquet Association clarified that Wellington was the only New Zealand regional association offering to host the event, and therefore Kelburn's agreement was required. The Committee agreed that Kelburn support the event as a venue, but not as the headquarters. We will feed back to Croquet New Zealand on improving the process in future.

Planning the club's future - early draft available

Your views about our club have been incorporated into a draft plan about where we should focus our effort and budget in the next few years. The draft plan will be presented at the Annual General Meeting on 11 May. An early draft is available for your comment. Formatting and minor details will be tidied up later, but please read it and let Secretary Jim Brough know if you have any comments about the content.

We are looking to hold another clubhouse meeting before the AGM. Date and time to be advised.

Re-registering as an Incorporated Society

As many of you will know, the 1908 Incorporated Societies Act was succeeded by the updated 2022 Act, which requires all New Zealand Incorporated Societies to make some changes and apply for re-registration before April 2026, or be struck off.

Jim Brough is working with an excellent team of legal advisors, including John Stevens, Colette Mackenzie, and Murray King on the constitutional and procedural changes required. Jim reports that the work is going well. There will be further news about this soon, as proposed constitutional changes need to be ratified by a general meeting of club members.

Our Annual General Meeting will be held on 11 May

This is an early note about the planned date of our Annual General Meeting of members. Formal notification will follow. Some of the committee members are not seeking re-election. Nominations for the general and match committees must be in writing, signed by a proposer, seconder and include the signed consent of the nominee. They must be received by the Secretary one calendar month before the AGM. A nomination form and, for interest, last year's papers are available on our website on the Kelburn Members page about the club and committee.

Growth of our online following

Love it or loathe it, many people use the internet and social media these days and they are increasingly using our club's website, Facebook and Instagram sites. We are attracting corporate bookings and new members in this way.

We have 96 Facebook followers, 133 Instagram followers, and 300 website users per month. It could take some time to overtake Taylor Swift, but our following includes croquet players, clubs and fans throughout New Zealand and around the world.

New signage on clubhouse

As our clubhouse approaches its 100th anniversary, we can see our name on the building at last. A project group and your committee have been working diligently since the last AGM on the designs, budget and approvals for the signage.

The large gable sign is visible from the Cable Car, so we hope this will reduce the number of people who turn up saying “I never realised this club was here." This, especially, as our club is now much more visible from the Cable Car, Kelburn Park, and surrounding area thanks to all the work by Mary Stevens and large team of amazing volunteers who have been clearing up the north garden border.

The gable sign is complemented by two other new signs. The club logo on the porch is ideal for close-up photos of trophy winners and other momentous occasions. The bronze plaque to the right of the main door commemorates the date of the club's establishment and the date the clubhouse was opened.

We have also applied to Wellington City Council for permission to erect new and improved street-facing signage near our Salamanca Road entrance. This requires permission from a second WCC department and is still in progress.

Do you use an Xtra email address?

SeniorNet Wellington advise that Spark are saying that new charges will be applicable for the Xtra email service from 16 May 2024.

If you are considering cancelling your Xtra account, Seniornet advises you to think carefully about the potential consequences before doing so.

In an advisory to members, SeniorNet says: “Email addresses have become embedded in our day to day lives. They are linked to our bank accounts, they are usernames for the various online services we use, they are part of the security checks used to keep your online accounts secure. Some services and subscriptions are hard-wired to the email address used when they were first set-up, and you may have to start/pay again to change your email address. All of this means that cancelling or changing these email addresses MUST be carefully managed and will take some time."

If you want to know more, SeniorNet Wellington can be contacted on 04 473 1510, or via their website - wellingtonseniornet.co.nz/

SeniorNet is a New Zealand-wide network that helps people over 50 to learn and enjoy using technology.

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